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For Immediate Release

Friday, March 11, 2011

Contact(s)

Stacey Osburn
Associate Director of Public and Media Relations
317/917-6117

INDIANAPOLIS---The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has found that Arkansas State University committed major violations involving 31 student-athletes. The violations in the case include ineligible participation and extra benefits, a failure to monitor the eligibility-certification process, and unethical conduct involving academic fraud. Penalties in this case include two years probation, a reduction in athletics financial aid, and vacating victories in the sports of football, men’s basketball, baseball and women’s soccer.

This case was resolved through the summary disposition process, a cooperative effort where the involved parties submit the case to the Committee on Infractions in written form. When the NCAA enforcement staff, the university and involved individuals agree to the facts of the case and the university proposes penalties, they may use this process instead of having a formal hearing.

The case involved 31 student-athletes who competed while ineligible from the 2005-06 academic year through the fall semester of 2008-09. Specifically, they failed to complete the minimum percentage of course requirements in their specific degree programs. The violations occurred because of the incorrect application of NCAA progress-toward-degree requirements by two former athletics academic advisors. When two new advisors joined the department in 2008, they initiated an audit of prior eligibility and discovered the violations. No indications of intentional wrongdoing were uncovered, but the failure of the institution to detect the violations constituted a failure to monitor the eligibility certification process.

The investigation also uncovered two instances of academic fraud. During the 2007 spring semester, and again in December 2007, the former director of technology in the institution’s College of Agriculture and Technology changed a final grade in a course for a men’s basketball student-athlete without the consent of the professor.

In determining the appropriate penalties to impose, the Committee on Infractions considered the institution’s self-imposed penalties and corrective actions. The penalties in this case include:

• Public reprimand and censure.
• Two years of probation from March 11, 2011, through March 10, 2013.
• The institution will reduce the amount of athletically related financial aid in the sports of football and men’s basketball by one full scholarship each for both the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years.
• The institution will vacate victories for participation by ineligible student-athletes in the following sports: football (2006) six wins, (2005) four wins; men’s basketball (2006-07) 15 wins, (2005-06) 12 wins; baseball (2006-07) three wins; women’s soccer (2005-06) five wins.
• In January 2009, the institution paid a fine of $43,500, which represents the maximum fine for the ineligible competition in secondary violations of the student-athletes identified in the institution’s self-report.
• During the period of probation, the institution will continue to develop and implement a comprehensive program to educate staff on the certification process. Additionally, the institution must submit a preliminary report to the Committee on Infractions setting forth a schedule for establishing this compliance and educations program and file with the committee annual compliance reports indicating progress made with this program
• At the conclusion of the probationary period, the institution’s president will provide a letter to the committee affirming that the institution’s current athletics policies and procedures conform to all requirements of NCAA regulations.

The members of the Division I Committee on Infractions who reviewed this case include Dennis Thomas, the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and chair of the Committee on Infractions. Other members are Britton Banowsky, commissioner of Conference USA; Roscoe C. Howard, Jr., attorney; John Black, attorney; Greg Sankey, associate commissioner of compliance for the Southeastern Conference; Eleanor Myers, faculty athletics representative and law professor at Temple University; Melissa Conboy, deputy director of athletics at University of Notre Dame; and James O’Fallon, law professor and faculty athletics representative for University of Oregon.

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